Apple dominates retail trading: TD survey

Which stocks are the most actively traded stocks, and where the average retail investor stands, with Steve Quirk, TD Ameritrade Trader Group.

An exceptionally good year for stocks helped drive retail investor bullishness to a three-year high in December, according to a survey from TD Ameritrade released Wednesday.

The company's IMX Index, which began tracking the mood of its 6 million online traders in 2010, also rose for a third- consecutive month in December.

"There's a lot of talk out there about tapering right now, but they are savvy enough to understand if the Fed is tapering, the economic outlook is becoming significantly better," Steve Quirk, senior vice president of TD Ameritrade's Trader Group, said on CNBC's "Halftime Report."

The company pulls a sample of its users who have completed at least one trade in the last two months and evaluates holdings and positions to calculate individual scores. The median represents its monthly IMX reading.